Last time on Sailor Moon Another Story, we restored the Destiny of Hotaru's dad aka. yeah, he's dead. Yeah, apparently him living in the anime was a fluke that wasn't meant to happen? The way this game handles that will never stop being confusing to me.

We're here because we're looking for Chibi-Usa, but we haven't had any luck so far.

: "Sailor Neptune!"

: "Come on, let's go and help Chibi-Usa!"

: "Sailor Uranus! But, we don't know where Chibi-Usa is."

: "We have found the enemies' hideout. Chibi-Usa must be hidden there."

The enemies' hideout...? But I thought where she wound up was a mental space inside of her Silver Crystal?

"Let's form the Sailor Teleport!"

[Usagi and Hotaru transform and they all get in a circle]

Oooh, we haven't done this one without the other girls before... onscreen, anyway.

They actually have a soundbite for the Sailor Teleport, it's pretty cute. The voice clips in this game are on-point, especially for the SNES. (Shame this is the only one I don't have available.)

[The girls all fly into the sky Escape Rope style]

: "But, how do you know Chibi-Usa is here?"

: "The two of us found enemies while checking out the hideout. We sensed both homesickness and evil energy."

: "Because of that, we know that Chibi-Usa must be somewhere in this area."

Uranus just repeats herself and we get moving again... I would say something about the nature of this area, but I'm gonna save it for a better time.

Setting it up like this so Saturn can wreck house.

... I know we're nine chapters in already, but why exactly does the game have a border with "Sailormoon" surrounding it? Like, it's better than pure black and you can change the color, but whatever.

Somehow, even in Chibi-Usa's mental crystal forest, there's a guy that sells stuff to you. I appreciate it, but how? I have no idea and this isn't even the worst offender: he sticks around in some weird places.

I've had a migraine looking for this thing's origins only to find absolutely nothing. It's a game-exclusive monster, apparently... which also makes it infinitely less interesting, even compared to the monks from Mars's chapter. At least they have a solid aesthetic over... whatever the hell this navy blue lady is supposed to be.

The name of U-Ndokai here is based off of the japanese word for athletic meet, hence why she's dressed up the way she is. As for the giant hermit crab shell on her back, beats the hell out of me.

Why does she have giant pufferfish lips, though? See... an important thing to clarify is that there's actually two types of Daimons: regular and Cormorant.

Regular ones steal Heart Crystals (basically the Soul Jar of Super, whereas other seasons have it be something else like Dream Mirrors in Season 4) via a laser they shoot out of a black star tattoo on their bodies.

(And yes, there is in fact one with a black star tattoo where her nipple would be, but I can't show it because I don't know how NSFW it actually is.)

Cormorant ones are based off of a traditional fishing style in Japan, Korea and China involving tying a snare around the cormorant's neck to prevent it from swallowing bigger fish. Said aquatic birds are trained to fish like this and smaller fish still pass through so they don't starve to death, I suppose.

This translates into Sailor Moon because Cormorant Daimons actually swallow the Heart Crystals, presumably to steal them back to the lab. These Daimons are identified by having a U- prefix to their name for some reason, likely to differentiate themselves from previous ones.

... Man, all that sophisticated exposition when I could have just made a cruder joke and rolled on with it.

When it comes to actually fighting, though, Saturn sweeps them up without even trying.

It's funny too, because U-Ndokai was one of the rare monsters to share concern towards a human being. That's sweet and all, but out of every human to share sympathy to, it was Hotaru while possessed by Mistress 9... yeah, that didn't end well.

So, you know, seeing these numbers is pretty much a visual representation of Hotaru's power as Sailor Saturn.

By comparison, this is how much everyone else was doing. Deep Submerge is... kinda bad.

A free Nigiri Set if you don't want to fight or spend money, along with a Violet Rose. Violet ones are not nearly as useful as their Blue or Red counterparts in that it gets rid of selfishness, aka. this game's equivalent of Confusion.

World Shaking fares marginally better, but I expect one hit kills. I thought you were strong, Uranus??

That's quite a bit better, but we're still lacking a full set.

You never come back here, by the way, so you need to grab the Amber Earrings while you're still here. (I hate the Lost Forever design trend.)

The Bread Roll only heals 80 HP, which is like... it's cute that the game has many different healing items, but when the cheapest, most easily available ones heal like... I don't know, 200 HP, it's kind of a moot point.

I mean, Chibi would have been in real trouble if she decided to walk around. That's how random battles are started and she can't kill things that aren't at zero health to begin with.

: "His name is Anshar. He protected me, but he was beaten up. He helped Momo-chan to her house. We came here by flying up into the sky."

Oh, we're in the sky?? I thought this was a mental forest by how they phrased it. What, is there a Zeal Kingdom-type floating island somewhere up here in modern Japan? Man, this translation is hella confusing at times.

: "Hey, he's Chibi-chan's knight in shining armor!"

[Chibi-Usa blushes]

: "H-hey, that's not true!"

Ah, young love.

: "But, he has the power to destroy enemies, and the power to fly. I wonder what he is. Maybe..."

It just seemed like he teleported us here. How exactly does Neptune know he flew us up to this... island place?

"If the Princess is set free from my sister's influence, then it's over..."

I love how blunt the Outer Senshi are. They don't really have time for the Inner Senshi's idealism, hence why they've clashed quite a bit in Super.

: "Well, Chibi-Usa, you have to leave it up to us from here."

: "No! I'm going too!"

: "No! After this point, it's way too dangerous."

: "If you go, I go!"

I know Chibi's being stubborn and Usagi is being a Reasonable Adult for once, but this is still pretty sweet with how much she wants to help protect Sailor Moon.

: "Sailor Moon, don't give up hope. This kid can come too. Since the Rose Crystal responded to Chibi's Silver Crystal, wouldn't it be better if she came along?"

: "Yes, wouldn't it be more dangerous if she didn't come along?"

Both of you raise excellent points, just saying. She'll definitely be safer in a group with us than being alone by her squishy, marshmallow self.

Sailor Moon says that Chibi can't do whatever she wants, she agrees and she Moon Prism Powers into Sailor Chibi Moon.

Going up takes you into this weird ice cave that totally won't have anything suspicious inside it, no sir.

: "It's just like D-Point at the North Pole... No, Beryl couldn't..."

: "What's wrong, Sailor Moon?"

: "Uh, uh, it's nothing."

Oh snap, it's time. This is gonna be especially painful for Sailor Moon.

"A lot of the enemies around here we've seen before."

... Isn't that the entire plot of the game, though? That the bad guys are being brought back to life (Ad-nauseam in the case of the random monsters)?

: "Queen Beryl's Youma..."

: "Queen Beryl! Is that the same Queen Beryl that destroyed the Moon Kingdom and the Silver Millennium?"

I like how Uranus phrases this, like she never actually fought Beryl herself. Yeah, where were the Outer Senshi when the Beryl's forces raided the Moon Kingdom?

: "Why are youma like that around here? Has Beryl... Maybe in that time everyone... No, it couldn't be that at all. I have to show everyone around here that I can protect them."

... Yeah. Here's a major spoiler in case you want to watch the anime for some reason: it may just seem like Usagi's mumbling about nothing here, but she's actually pondering over the events of the first season's finale where every member of the Inner Senshi died but her.

So, you know, that's pretty harsh.

... Also what is she talking about? The only fights here have been a game original monster and a Daimon for corn's sake.

"What is your power called... and the Silver Crystal... If you have that, then why have you come here? ... Yeah! The Princess's Silver Crystal reacted to the Rose Crystal! Did this happen while I was unconscious?"

Oh, he suddenly wakes up? Wait, what purpose does this monologue serve? It's information we already knew and kind of makes me question what the hell Anshar was doing before.

In hindsight this was a terrible idea because Chibi's defense is... not so good. She should have gone into the back.

[Make Up! SFX]

Wait, huh? Is this a fixed fight?

Name: DD Girls 1HP: 1600Attack: 60Defense: 18Speed: 25EXP: 89Yen: 5000Item Drop: Life Water (Revives a party member)Monster Type: YoumaBased off of: DD Girls (second one from the left)* If applicable, what was their debut in the show/manga: Sailor Moon Classic, episode 45

Oh muk, there they are!

The DD Girls are Queen Beryl's most powerful Youma and are infamous for being the only monsters in the entire franchise to actually... well... you know, kill the Sailor Senshi. That's right, they didn't just capture them, they didn't just injure them, they actually murdered the Inner Senshi.

They were going in hardcore for the first season's finale.

I love how they all look like weird bug-women and while I can't tell which, it's very obvious they're meant to be Evil counterparts to the Sailor Senshi. That's always neat.

That said, we're definitely at an advantage this time.

If you're wondering how the Inner Senshi were brought back to life after Actually Getting Killed, Usagi used the Silver Crystal to create an alternate timeline where they didn't die or something? I honestly don't know how it works and thinking about it gives me another migraine, so let's not.

There's Pink Sugar Heart Attack in all of its pathetic glory. It costs friggin' four EP to even cast, yet more valuable and powerful attacks are even cheaper to shoot off.

I meant what I said when I called her a baby marshmallow.

Oh psyduck, that's not good. If you remember correctly, Barrier is the petrify status effect of this game... and if it hits everybody, we're done for.

Thankfully it has an extremely low hit rate so nobody actually has an accident.

That wasn't too bad, but there's still four more to chew through.

While I don't think this is going to help much in terms of her damage output, making her more unkillable is always good.

The leader, I presume? She's definitely the most well-rounded of the Youma girls, if nothing else.

She starts off with Illusion, so I can kind of see why they gave you the Violet Rose earlier. Confusion isn't scary when compared to Enchantment, let's be real, because at least you're not exclusively hitting your allies.

Pink Sugar Heart Ache is a yellow Luminaire, guys... and it's really bad. I can't tell if this is because Chibi doesn't have good equipment, her being underleveled or just the attack being terrible, but oh well. The result is still the same.

: "Oh no... Usagi, go Crisis and help me!"

: "Alright, Chibi-Moon!"

That's still working off of her terrible stats, but imagine if we had good equipment. That 200+ damage would turn into something that would make Saturn's attacks look like child's play.

... And even after all of that build up, Chibi Moon still bites it. Oh well, at least she got her chance to shine.

: "Of course! Has Queen Beryl been revived?"

Duh. It'd be weird if she didn't get brought back, given how she's the OG Sailor Moon big bad.

: "Surely, in the middle of this cave, we shall find the answer to that secret."

But first, a Pork Chop for any possible unhappy accident.

: "The Rose Crystal's reaction is coming from inside here."

[Sailor Moon looks around]

: "What are you talking about? This is a dead end!"

The other Senshi say that of course there's a hidden room there while Usagi refuses to believe it for some reason.

Oh damn, it's really her... the queen of the Dark Kingdom! This is gonna go south quick.

"And the Princess... "

... Yeah, this is the first time both Chibi-Moon and Beryl even learn about each other, isn't it? That's so surreal to me, you don't even know.

: "Sailor Moon!"

: "Beryl! You were sealed away!"

: "She's..."

: "Queen Beryl..."

I love Uranus and Neptune's responses because in hindsight, this is the perfect usage of the internal crossover aspect of Another Story: Uranus and Neptune are implied to have never even seen Beryl due to their duties to guard the Solar System from external, alien threats like the Daimons.

Seeing them react this way is completely appropriate and I love it.

: "Yes, I was sealed away by you. But once again, I stand before you. What do you think? The Destiny where I have been beaten by you has changed, and now it's my turn! To kill you, Sailor Moon!"

I'll give you a simple overview of her backstory considering the game itself will dive into Beryl's past later on. Long story short, Beryl used to be a normal oracle woman that lived in the Silver Millennium until she fell in love with the prince of the Earth, Endymion.

A dark entity called Metalia would take advantage of Beryl's jealousy of the Moon Princess and use it to turn her into Queen Beryl, ruler of the Youma and the Dark Kingdom. She brainwashed the Four Heavenly Kings into working with her and the rest is history.

I don't remember the name, but this is a link attack between Chibi Moon and Saturn that heals the entire party. I could have used the Nigiri Sets we've been collecting so far, but I just wanted to test this out.

Beryl is not hard, hence why a Moon-Neptune attack did this much damage.

Conversely, a Manicure-boosted Super Sailor Moon shooting off a Heart Ache should be more than enough to obliterate Beryl.

I can't imagine the effects a Cormorant Daimon-killing attack would have on Season 1 Beryl, just that I know it's devastating and ooh, I adore it.

We even get a Fragrance for our troubles. It's basically a party-wide attack boost and we'll definitely be grinding to get some more of them in the future.

What 'chu talkin' about, vile woman?

: "Sailor Moon! Do you know why I've been waiting for you here?"

: "Huh? Aren't you going to tell me why..."

... What a silly exchange in the middle of a high-stakes fight.

Luna says that strange things have been happening (like they haven't already) and mentions some confusing line about magnetic radiation from Mount Fuji disorientating people all over Japan even though this is the first time such a thing is even brought up.

"Here all kinds of Metallia-sama like powers are coming together. And if the evil powers come together... I shall change..."

She wasn't kidding about Queen Metalia's powers, jesus christ! But hey, I'm sure we can stomach through it and -

Never mind.

Well then, that's it for the playthrough of Sailor Moon Another Story. The bad guys won and took over the universe, the end. Didn't expect it to be so anti-climactic, but you can never truly expect these old games.

No, of course the game doesn't end that way. That'd be dumb.

At least they have the courtesy to not let us waste any healing items or let us think the fight was winnable.

: "Sailor Moon! Use the two Silver Crystals together! The Silver Crystals of the past and future!"

... Why didn't we do that before?

: "I understand! Chibi-Moon!"

: "Right!"

[Twin beams of light surround Beryl]

: "Doesn't the Silver Crystal work?"

: "Is it hopeless?"

: "Why...?"

: "Why doesn't the Silver Crystal work?"

Were they expecting to beat Super Beryl without a fight? Cause that ain't happening.

Beryl mentions that she's escaped her Destiny of being beaten by the Silver Crystal, to which Luna responds with:

Bluffing indeed, because the two Silver Crystals did in fact do something...

Okay, she's been demoted from "invincible" to "strong but manageable boss". Seems about right.

The funny thing is that Unbeatable Super Beryl actually had higher stats than the proper final boss of the game, so let that speak volumes of the strength of Queen Metalia when compared to the other villains in the franchise.

She wastes a turn trying to inflict Selfishness only to have nobody confused. That's pretty hilarious compared to her Super Uber attack from before.

We buff Sailor Moon up because of course she has to be the one to kill Super Beryl.

Uranus and Saturn played offense while the rest of the team was getting set up.

I love how even in the back row Chibi Moon still takes colossal damage. At least this doesn't kill her, but even Uranus doesn't take as much damage despite being in the front. That's pretty sad.

We pepper Super Beryl with a few of these and watch her crumble.

The witch is dead.

Out of every line in this game, this has to be the most hilariously blunt.

I'd almost consider using it as an LP staple, it's that meme-worthy.

: "I've been beaten by you again... No, I can't be beaten by the Silver Crystal. I thought that this time you people would become mine!"

That's an... odd way of phrasing it.

[Queen Beryl fades away]

GG Beryl. I don't tolerate your use of Gameshark to turn into Super Beryl, though.

: "Queen Beryl... how implacable."

No kidding. We literally had to make her beatable to even stand a chance against her.

[Moon looks back to the rest of the crew]

: "Everyone! Is everyone alright?!"

: "A... ah... I used up almost all of my strength."

: "Me too..."

: "... What's wrong, Sailor Moon? I'm fine."

You can tell she's saying this because she knows she's overpowered with a ton of defense. Her response is fantastic.

: "I'm glad... Everyone's still alive..."

This line just breaks my heart though, because you know she's traumatized from the first time she fought Beryl and the DD Girls.

: "Everyone, it's not over yet. We still haven't found the Rose Crystal."

: "Yeah, if we find the Rose Crystal, Mamoru-san will return to his senses."

Seriously though, what was the point of getting the Four Heavenly King stones if we're just going to get another crystal that'll wake him up anyway?

Or are you saying to completely knock him out of his coma, we need all five? That... that seems like a lot of trouble. Granted, the inciting attack was from all five Opposito at once, but come on.

Long story short, Sailor Moon can't tell which one is the real one, but Chibi does. She pulls it from behind one of the crystals only for... well...

Then Shingo comes in and tells us that Chibi is looking pretty sullen. He even wonders if she's being bullied, which... to be honest, isn't too far off of what happened. Her heartstrings definitely got yanked, anyway.

: "You're so ANNOYING! Don't you even knock before you come in?"

To be fair, he did come in concerned about Chibi only for Usagi to be like "get out of my room >:(", so this response was completely justified.

Luna ponders that since Sin is Anshar's sister, she must be the leader of the enemies that want to change Destiny.

[Telephone ringing SFX]

: "Usagi! Telephone from a friend!"

(Also, hey, I was wrong about the mom's portrait never being used for anything important.)

Ami calls to let Usagi know that Mamoru is conscious again! Hooray!

: "Really?! Mamo-chan's all healthy again! "

Ami warns that he could use another day or two of rest, but it completely flies over Usagi's head as the next Chapter overlay shows up.

Hostility, huh? Oh boy...

Usagi and Chibi practically sprint of the house so they can see the rejuvenated Mamoru...

... Only to leave poor Ami hanging on the phone. Oops.

Anyway, next time on Sailor Moon Another Story, the game starts to get really hard and we go deep into ~vaporwave~ territory. See you guys then.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Team Set-Up:

The PokéCommunity

Meta

Pokémon characters and images belong to The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo. This website is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, or The Pokémon Company International. We just love Pokémon.